Walt Disney World has officially started the massive lobby reimagining overhaul at the flagship Grand Floridian Resort that’ll bring with it a brand-new birdcage bar and ‘enchanted garden’ style. This shares new construction photos to show you what to expect if you have an upcoming hotel stay to illustrate the guest impact.
In case you missed it, Walt Disney World announced the construction timeline and revealed the new Birdcage Lobby Bar Coming Soon to the Grand Floridian Resort. With this, there are impacts to the guest experience and offerings at the flagship hotel, starting immediately and extending through Christmas 2025.
Beyond the construction walls for the lobby reimagining and Birdcage Bar, Walt Disney World also announced No Gingerbread House at Grand Floridian for Christmas 2025. Disney usually starts building this life-sized edible creation in mid-October, which overlaps with the overhaul. As discussed in that post, it’s our suspicion that the Gingerbread House will never return to the lobby. While popular with visitors during the holiday season, it’s not a huge hit with everyone…
This project has been several years in the making. It actually started shortly before the closure of the parks with a lounge update, and continued shortly after reopening with more restaurant reimaginings. Then with the pause of what’s now Disney Lakeshore Lodge, the company determined it “needed” more Disney Vacation Club points to sell, leading to the DVC overhaul of the Big Pine Key building.
Following that, all of the outlying buildings in the hotel were redone in a similar style. (See Grand New Rooms at Walt Disney World’s Flagship Resort for a look inside.) That happened building-by-building approximately two years ago, and was expected to culminate with the main lobby towards the end of the year. But it didn’t. We then expected work to resume on a number of other occasions, most notably around the reimagining of 1900 Park Fare. Nope.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and Walt Disney World is finally getting started. On the heels of the official announcement last week revealing the Birdcage Bar and lobby overhaul, construction walls are up at the Grand Floridian. Since we’ve already covered this project at length in the above-referenced posts, I’m going to mostly let the construction photos speak for themselves:
As you can see, about one-third of the lobby is currently walled-off for removal of the existing Birdcage aviary, demolition of its foundation, and building of the Birdcage Bar.
We would expect these walls to be around for pretty much the length of the lobby project, with more walls popping up elsewhere around the lobby for shorter durations to accomplish other aspects of the reimagining. This will be done in phases to minimize the disruption, and avoid taking too much of the lobby out of commission. We’d expect the most significant work to be timed around August and September, the two slowest months of the year at Walt Disney World. That will probably be the peak of the project.
Walt Disney World has indicated that portions of the lobby will close at times, and guests may encounter changes to their path of travel. While construction activity will be noticeable during daytime hours, efforts will be made to minimize disruptions, and all pools, dining and other amenities will remain available.
Easter egg displays are still up in the Grand Floridian lobby. This one of Maleficent the Dragon from Festival of Fantasy Parade is far and away the best of the bunch.
I had thought that there were far fewer eggs this year. With this construction project starting before Easter, now it kind of makes sense. Still somewhat surprised Walt Disney World didn’t wait one more week, but neither the hotel nor the parks felt busy, so perhaps Easter week isn’t going to be too bad. Famous last words.
In honor of the legacy and service to the hotel of the storied birdcage aviary, Monsieur Grandmeister, the proprietor of the Grand Floridian, has ordered the hotel flag to be flown at, uh, two-thirds mast?
Not sure where the authority for this is found in the Flag Code. Probably a footnote.
Finally, because I know it was on everyone’s mind, but our beloved bunny and monkey masterpieces are still safe. I’m not one for petitions, but if someone were to start one to get these puppies added to some historic register of culturally significant works of art, I’d sign it. Perhaps the Grand Floridian should even be added to the National Register of Historic Places as home to these priceless treasures. Perhaps these should be located to The Gallery at Bricker Manor for preservation purposes. That would first require establishment of such a gallery (not to mention a manor), but I’m game. Not sure whether Sarah will sign-off, she doesn’t seem have the same appreciation for these works of fine art.
Regardless of the rabbit and monkey paintings, we’re both cautiously optimistic about the end result of this lobby reimagining. The Grand Floridian is arguably the most well-rounded Seven Seas Lagoon Resort, with fewer drawbacks than the Polynesian or Contemporary (speaking of which, redo the Grand Canyon Concourse next, Imagineers!). So long as common spaces and remaining restaurants are modernized in a respectful style consistent with the outlying buildings, the Grand Floridian will emerge from this as a better option than before, and a resort truly deserving of the flagship distinction.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the Grand Floridian’s lobby overhaul finally starting? Excited for the continued reimagining of Walt Disney World’s flagship resort, or worried it’ll lose its personality and richly-themed spaces in the process? Thoughts on the Birdcage Bar? Have you stayed at the Grand Floridian since the new rooms debuted? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!